X-Git-Url: https://git.gag.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Faltusmetrum.xsl;h=a0b94059d719f2c8c2930454a2c92e85e1685bf5;hb=81730670b6848bebb2c6a8ac7813419112f2779a;hp=66c2b339feb24013633c2b0a0fb614d11e80d923;hpb=1bd781da934c738e0c9294197c7eb622b0710a9a;p=fw%2Faltos
diff --git a/doc/altusmetrum.xsl b/doc/altusmetrum.xsl
index 66c2b339..a0b94059 100644
--- a/doc/altusmetrum.xsl
+++ b/doc/altusmetrum.xsl
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
Towns
- 2011
+ 2013
Bdale Garbee and Keith Packard
@@ -35,6 +35,31 @@
+
+ 1.2
+ 14 April 2013
+
+ Updated for software version 1.2. Version 1.2 adds support
+ for TeleBT and AltosDroid. It also adds a few minor features
+ and fixes a few minor bugs in AltosUI and the AltOS firmware.
+
+
+
+ 1.1.1
+ 16 September 2012
+
+ Updated for software version 1.1.1 Version 1.1.1 fixes a few
+ bugs found in version 1.1.
+
+
+
+ 1.1
+ 13 September 2012
+
+ Updated for software version 1.1. Version 1.1 has new
+ features but is otherwise compatible with version 1.0.
+
+
1.0
24 August 2011
@@ -106,7 +131,7 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
support optional capabilities in the future.
- The newest device is TeleMini, a dual deploy altimeter with
+ Our second device was TeleMini, a dual deploy altimeter with
radio telemetry and radio direction finding. This device is only
13mm by 38mm (½ inch by 1½ inches) and can fit easily in an 18mm
air-frame.
@@ -156,8 +181,9 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
The TeleMini battery can be charged by disconnecting it from the
TeleMini board and plugging it into a standalone battery charger
- board, and connecting that via a USB cable to a laptop or other USB
- power source
+ such as the LipoCharger product included in TeleMini Starter Kits,
+ and connecting that via a USB cable to a laptop or other USB
+ power source.
The other active device in the starter kit is the TeleDongle USB to
@@ -258,7 +284,21 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
A typical TeleMetrum or TeleMini installation involves attaching
only a suitable Lithium Polymer battery, a single pole switch for
power on/off, and two pairs of wires connecting e-matches for the
- apogee and main ejection charges.
+ apogee and main ejection charges. All Altus Metrum products are
+ designed for use with single-cell batteries with 3.7 volts nominal.
+
+
+ The battery connectors are a standard 2-pin JST connector and
+ match batteries sold by Spark Fun. These batteries are
+ single-cell Lithium Polymer batteries that nominally provide 3.7
+ volts. Other vendors sell similar batteries for RC aircraft
+ using mating connectors, however the polarity for those is
+ generally reversed from the batteries used by Altus Metrum
+ products. In particular, the Tenergy batteries supplied for use
+ in Featherweight flight computers are not compatible with Altus
+ Metrum flight computers or battery chargers. Check
+ polarity and voltage before connecting any battery not purchased
+ from Altus Metrum or Spark Fun.
By default, we use the unregulated output of the Li-Po battery directly
@@ -355,6 +395,36 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
tower with a screw-driver trying to turn on your avionics before
installing igniters!
+
+ TeleMini is configured via the radio link. Of course, that
+ means you need to know the TeleMini radio configuration values
+ or you won't be able to communicate with it. For situations
+ when you don't have the radio configuration values, TeleMini
+ offers an 'emergency recovery' mode. In this mode, TeleMini is
+ configured as follows:
+
+
+ Sets the radio frequency to 434.550MHz
+
+
+ Sets the radio calibration back to the factory value.
+
+
+ Sets the callsign to N0CALL
+
+
+ Does not go to 'pad' mode after five seconds.
+
+
+
+
+ To get into 'emergency recovery' mode, first find the row of
+ four small holes opposite the switch wiring. Using a short
+ piece of small gauge wire, connect the outer two holes
+ together, then power TeleMini up. Once the red LED is lit,
+ disconnect the wire and the board should signal that it's in
+ 'idle' mode after the initial five second startup period.
+
GPS
@@ -464,7 +534,7 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
You can monitor the operation of the radio link by watching the
lights on the devices. The red LED will flash each time a packet
- is tramsitted, while the green LED will light up on TeleDongle when
+ is transmitted, while the green LED will light up on TeleDongle when
it is waiting to receive a packet from the altimeter.
@@ -536,7 +606,7 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
or radio link via TeleDongle.
- Radio Frequencies
+ Radio Frequency
Altus Metrum boards support radio frequencies in the 70cm
band. By default, the configuration interface provides a
@@ -583,6 +653,90 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
simultaneously.
+
+ Maximum Flight Log
+
+ TeleMetrum version 1.1 and 1.2 have 2MB of on-board flash storage,
+ enough to hold over 40 minutes of data at full data rate
+ (100 samples/second). TeleMetrum 1.0 has 1MB of on-board
+ storage. As data are stored at a reduced rate during descent
+ (10 samples/second), there's plenty of space to store many
+ flights worth of data.
+
+
+ The on-board flash is partitioned into separate flight logs,
+ each of a fixed maximum size. Increase the maximum size of
+ each log and you reduce the number of flights that can be
+ stored. Decrease the size and TeleMetrum can store more
+ flights.
+
+
+ All of the configuration data is also stored in the flash
+ memory, which consumes 64kB on TeleMetrum v1.1/v1.2 and 256B on
+ TeleMetrum v1.0. This configuration space is not available
+ for storing flight log data.
+
+
+ To compute the amount of space needed for a single flight,
+ you can multiply the expected ascent time (in seconds) by
+ 800, multiply the expected descent time (in seconds) by 80
+ and add the two together. That will slightly under-estimate
+ the storage (in bytes) needed for the flight. For instance,
+ a flight spending 20 seconds in ascent and 150 seconds in
+ descent will take about (20 * 800) + (150 * 80) = 28000
+ bytes of storage. You could store dozens of these flights in
+ the on-board flash.
+
+
+ The default size, 192kB, allows for 10 flights of storage on
+ TeleMetrum v1.1/v1.2 and 5 flights on TeleMetrum v1.0. This
+ ensures that you won't need to erase the memory before
+ flying each time while still allowing more than sufficient
+ storage for each flight.
+
+
+ As TeleMini does not contain an accelerometer, it stores
+ data at 10 samples per second during ascent and one sample
+ per second during descent. Each sample is a two byte reading
+ from the barometer. These are stored in 5kB of
+ on-chip flash memory which can hold 256 seconds at the
+ ascent rate or 2560 seconds at the descent rate. Because of
+ the limited storage, TeleMini cannot hold data for more than
+ one flight, and so must be erased after each flight or it
+ will not capture data for subsequent flights.
+
+
+
+ Ignite Mode
+
+ Instead of firing one charge at apogee and another charge at
+ a fixed height above the ground, you can configure the
+ altimeter to fire both at apogee or both during
+ descent. This was added to support an airframe that has two
+ TeleMetrum computers, one in the fin can and one in the
+ nose.
+
+
+ Providing the ability to use both igniters for apogee or
+ main allows some level of redundancy without needing two
+ flight computers. In Redundant Apogee or Redundant Main
+ mode, the two charges will be fired two seconds apart.
+
+
+
+ Pad Orientation
+
+ TeleMetrum measures acceleration along the axis of the
+ board. Which way the board is oriented affects the sign of
+ the acceleration value. Instead of trying to guess which way
+ the board is mounted in the air frame, TeleMetrum must be
+ explicitly configured for either Antenna Up or Antenna
+ Down. The default, Antenna Up, expects the end of the
+ TeleMetrum board connected to the 70cm antenna to be nearest
+ the nose of the rocket, with the end containing the screw
+ terminals nearest the tail.
+
+
@@ -655,6 +809,15 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
incorrect data from being reported.
+
+
+ The age of the displayed data, in seconds since the last
+ successfully received telemetry packet. In normal operation
+ this will stay in the low single digits. If the number starts
+ counting up, then you are no longer receiving data over the radio
+ link from the flight computer.
+
+
Finally, the largest portion of the window contains a set of
@@ -779,14 +942,16 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
be below 10m/s when under the main parachute in a dual-deploy flight.
- For TeleMetrum altimeters, you can locate the rocket in the sky
- using the elevation and
- bearing information to figure out where to look. Elevation is
- in degrees above the horizon. Bearing is reported in degrees
- relative to true north. Range can help figure out how big the
- rocket will appear. Note that all of these values are relative
- to the pad location. If the elevation is near 90°, the rocket
- is over the pad, not over you.
+ For TeleMetrum altimeters, you can locate the rocket in the
+ sky using the elevation and bearing information to figure
+ out where to look. Elevation is in degrees above the
+ horizon. Bearing is reported in degrees relative to true
+ north. Range can help figure out how big the rocket will
+ appear. Ground Distance shows how far it is to a point
+ directly under the rocket and can help figure out where the
+ rocket is likely to land. Note that all of these values are
+ relative to the pad location. If the elevation is near 90°,
+ the rocket is over the pad, not over you.
Finally, the igniter voltages are reported in this tab as
@@ -1093,31 +1258,6 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
size. A smaller value will allow more flights to be stored,
a larger value will record data from longer flights.
-
- During ascent, TeleMetrum records barometer and
- accelerometer values 100 times per second, other analog
- information (voltages and temperature) 6 times per second
- and GPS data once per second. During descent, the non-GPS
- data is recorded 1/10th as often. Each barometer +
- accelerometer record takes 8 bytes.
-
-
- The default, 192kB, will store over 200 seconds of data at
- the ascent rate, or over 2000 seconds of data at the descent
- rate. That's plenty for most flights. This leaves enough
- storage for five flights in 1MB systems, or 10 flights in 2MB
- systems.
-
-
- The configuration block takes the last available block of
- memory, on v1.0 boards that's just 256 bytes. However, the
- flash part on the v1.1 boards uses 64kB for each block.
-
-
- TeleMini has 5kB of on-board storage, which is plenty for a
- single flight. Make sure you download and delete the data
- before subsequent flights, or TeleMini will not log any data.
-
Ignite Mode
@@ -1231,6 +1371,16 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
your local radio regulations.
+
+ Imperial Units
+
+ This switches between metric units (meters) and imperial
+ units (feet and miles). This affects the display of values
+ use during flight monitoring, data graphing and all of the
+ voice announcements. It does not change the units used when
+ exporting to CSV files, those are always produced in metric units.
+
+
Font Size
@@ -1260,6 +1410,73 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
+
+ Configure Groundstation
+
+ Select this button and then select a TeleDongle Device from the list provided.
+
+
+ The first few lines of the dialog provide information about the
+ connected device, including the product name,
+ software version and hardware serial number. Below that are the
+ individual configuration entries.
+
+
+ Note that the TeleDongle itself doesn't save any configuration
+ data, the settings here are recorded on the local machine in
+ the Java preferences database. Moving the TeleDongle to
+ another machine, or using a different user account on the same
+ machine will cause settings made here to have no effect.
+
+
+ At the bottom of the dialog, there are three buttons:
+
+
+
+
+ Save. This writes any changes to the
+ local Java preferences file. If you don't
+ press this button, any changes you make will be lost.
+
+
+
+
+ Reset. This resets the dialog to the most recently saved values,
+ erasing any changes you have made.
+
+
+
+
+ Close. This closes the dialog. Any unsaved changes will be
+ lost.
+
+
+
+
+ The rest of the dialog contains the parameters to be configured.
+
+
+ Frequency
+
+ This configures the frequency to use for both telemetry and
+ packet command mode. Set this before starting any operation
+ involving packet command mode so that it will use the right
+ frequency. Telemetry monitoring mode also provides a menu to
+ change the frequency, and that menu also sets the same Java
+ preference value used here.
+
+
+
+ Radio Calibration
+
+ The radios in every Altus Metrum device are calibrated at the
+ factory to ensure that they transmit and receive on the
+ specified frequency. To change a TeleDongle's calibration,
+ you must reprogram the unit completely, so this entry simply
+ shows the current value and doesn't allow any changes.
+
+
+
Flash Image
@@ -1373,6 +1590,45 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
+
+ AltosDroid
+
+ AltosDroid provides the same flight monitoring capabilities as
+ AltosUI, but runs on Android devices and is designed to connect
+ to a TeleBT receiver over Bluetoothâ¢. Altos Droid monitors
+ telemetry data, logging it to internal storage in the Android
+ device, and presents that data in a UI the same way the 'Monitor
+ Flight' window does in AltosUI.
+
+
+ This manual will explain how to configure AltosDroid, connect
+ to TeleBT, operate the flight monitoring interface and describe
+ what the displayed data means.
+
+
+ Installing AltosDroid
+
+ AltosDroid is included in the Google Play store. To install
+ it on your Android device, open open the Google Play Store
+ application and search for "altosdroid". Make sure you don't
+ have a space between "altos" and "droid" or you probably won't
+ find what you want. That should bring you to the right page
+ from which you can download and install the application.
+
+
+
+
+ Configuring AltosDroid
+
+
+
+ Downloading Flight Logs
+
+
Using Altus Metrum Products
@@ -1388,8 +1644,9 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
In the rocket itself, you just need a TeleMetrum or
TeleMini board and
- a Li-Po rechargeable battery. An 860mAh battery weighs less than a 9V
- alkaline battery, and will run a TeleMetrum for hours.
+ a single-cell, 3.7 volt nominal Li-Po rechargeable battery. An
+ 850mAh battery weighs less than a 9V alkaline battery, and will
+ run a TeleMetrum for hours.
A 110mAh battery weighs less than a triple A battery and will run a TeleMetrum for
a few hours, or a TeleMini for much (much) longer.
@@ -1405,7 +1662,9 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
On the Ground
To receive the data stream from the rocket, you need an antenna and short
- feed-line connected to one of our TeleDongle units. The
+ feed-line connected to one of our TeleDongle units. If possible, use an SMA to BNC
+ adapter instead of feedline between the antenna feedpoint and
+ TeleDongle, as this will give you the best performance. The
TeleDongle in turn plugs directly into the USB port on a notebook
computer. Because TeleDongle looks like a simple serial port, your computer
does not require special device drivers... just plug it in.
@@ -1442,7 +1701,7 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
So, to recap, on the ground the hardware you'll need includes:
- an antenna and feed-line
+ an antenna and feed-line or adapter
a TeleDongle
@@ -1465,7 +1724,9 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
Arrow Antennas.
The 440-3 and 440-5 are both good choices for finding a
- TeleMetrum- or TeleMini- equipped rocket when used with a suitable 70cm HT.
+ TeleMetrum- or TeleMini- equipped rocket when used with a suitable
+ 70cm HT. TeleDongle and an SMA to BNC adapter fit perfectly
+ between the driven element and reflector of Arrow antennas.
@@ -1491,22 +1752,36 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
Future Plans
- In the future, we intend to offer "companion boards" for the rocket that will
- plug in to TeleMetrum to collect additional data, provide more pyro channels,
- and so forth.
+ In the future, we intend to offer "companion boards" for the rocket
+ that will plug in to TeleMetrum to collect additional data, provide
+ more pyro channels, and so forth.
- We are also working on the design of a hand-held ground terminal that will
- allow monitoring the rocket's status, collecting data during flight, and
- logging data after flight without the need for a notebook computer on the
- flight line. Particularly since it is so difficult to read most notebook
- screens in direct sunlight, we think this will be a great thing to have.
+ Also under design is a new flight computer with more sensors, more
+ pyro channels, and a more powerful radio system designed for use
+ in multi-stage, complex, and extreme altitude projects.
- Because all of our work is open, both the hardware designs and the software,
- if you have some great idea for an addition to the current Altus Metrum family,
- feel free to dive in and help! Or let us know what you'd like to see that
- we aren't already working on, and maybe we'll get excited about it too...
+ We are also working on alternatives to TeleDongle. One is a
+ a stand-alone, hand-held ground terminal that will allow monitoring
+ the rocket's status, collecting data during flight, and logging data
+ after flight without the need for a notebook computer on the
+ flight line. Particularly since it is so difficult to read most
+ notebook screens in direct sunlight, we think this will be a great
+ thing to have. We are also working on a TeleDongle variant with
+ Bluetooth that will work with Android phones and tablets.
+
+
+ Because all of our work is open, both the hardware designs and the
+ software, if you have some great idea for an addition to the current
+ Altus Metrum family, feel free to dive in and help! Or let us know
+ what you'd like to see that we aren't already working on, and maybe
+ we'll get excited about it too...
+
+
+ Watch our
+ web site for more news
+ and information as our family of products evolves!
@@ -1783,7 +2058,7 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
Select the image you want put on the TeleMetrum, which should have a
- name in the form telemetrum-v1.1-1.0.0.ihx. It should be visible
+ name in the form telemetrum-v1.2-1.0.0.ihx. It should be visible
in the default directory, if not you may have to poke around
your system to find it.
@@ -2043,7 +2318,7 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
- RF interface for battery charging, configuration, and data recovery.
+ RF interface for configuration, and data recovery.
@@ -2313,6 +2588,37 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
once you enable the voice output!
+
+ Drill Templates
+
+ These images, when printed, provide precise templates for the
+ mounting holes in Altus Metrum flight computers
+
+
+ TeleMetrum template
+
+ TeleMetrum has overall dimensions of 1.000 x 2.750 inches, and the
+ mounting holes are sized for use with 4-40 or M3 screws.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ TeleMini template
+
+ TeleMini has overall dimensions of 0.500 x 1.500 inches, and the
+ mounting holes are sized for use with 2-56 or M2 screws.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Calibration
@@ -2421,11 +2727,14 @@ NAR #88757, TRA #12200
Release Notes
-
-
-
-
-
+ Version 1.2
+ Version 1.1.1
+ Version 1.1
+ Version 1.0.1
+ Version 0.9.2
+ Version 0.9
+ Version 0.8
+ Version 0.7.1